Paris and Berlin stand together

As tensions escalate in Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron held a press conference in Berlin (Germany) on Tuesday, January 25, alongside the new German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz. In duplex on the spot for the 23 hours of Franceinfo, the journalist Christelle Méral explains that the two heads of state “advocate de-escalation, consultation. The French president must also have a telephone interview with Vladimir Putin next Friday”, she announces.

The journalist reports that the President of the Republic will adopt a language “Close. Emmanuel Macron said this evening that Russia will pay, and I quote, ‘a very high cost in the event of an attack on Ukraine'”. The type of response envisaged remains unclear. “For now, the German Chancellor has refused any delivery of arms to Ukraine and he is reluctant about sanctions. Germany is very dependent on Russia for its gas”, recalls Christelle Méral. Emmanuel Macron wants, him, “bring the points of view together to try to weigh in relation to Russia, to also weigh in against the United States, which has a much more muscular discourse against Moscow”, adds the journalist.